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Ahmed Zaid Salim Zuhair
| place_of_birth = Jeddah, Saudi Arabia | date_of_arrest = | place_of_arrest= | arresting_authority= | date_of_release = 2009-06-12 | place_of_release= Saudi Arabia | date_of_death = | place_of_death = | citizenship = Saudi Arabia | detained_at = Guantanamo | id_number = 669 | group = | alias = | charge = No charge, held in extrajudicial detention | penalty = | status = Repatriated | csrt_summary = | csrt_transcript= | occupation = | spouse = | parents = | children = }} Ahmed Zaid Salim Zuhair is a citizen of Saudi Arabia formerly held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 669. On August 13, 2008 it was reported that Ahmed Zaid Zuhair had been on a hunger strike since June 2005. mirror Two other long-term hunger strikers died under mysterious circumstances in June 2006. On March 18, 2009, camp authorities declined to agree to moving Zuhair to Camp 4 from Camp 6 in return for his ending his hunger strike. mirror In December 2008, an Administrative Review Board cleared Zuhair for release from Guantanamo. On May 22, 2009 Zuhair was cleared for transfer once again by the Inter-Agency Review process established by President Obama. He was repatriated to Saudi Arabia on June 12, 2009. Historian Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files, has pointed to the weakness of the allegations in Zuhair's case as an example of "how shoddy intelligence and the use of confessions extracted through torture" created at Guantanamo a "lawless world of hyperbole and paranoia, in which few allegations have actually been tested in a court of law." Combatant Status Review A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for his tribunal. The memo accused him of the following: (TVH). :#The Takvir Ve Hijra is connected to the al Qaida Network. :#The detainee was sentenced in absentia by a Bosnian court as the leader of a terrorist car bombing in Mostar, Bosnia in 1997. :#The detainee identified himself in a photograph as the man convicted in absentia for the car bombing in Bosnia in 1997. :#The detainee was involved in the murder of a United States official (William Jefferson) who was working for the United Nations in Tuzla, Bosnia.There is no record that William Jefferson was ever an official with the United States government. :#William Jefferson's watch was among the items found in the detainee's belongings. :#The detainee was involved in the USS Cole bombing. }} Zuhair denied any association with al-Qa'ida or any unlawful or violent acts. He submitted his response to these accusations to a federal court in December 2008. First annual Administrative Review Board hearing A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Ahmed Zaid Salim Zuhair's first annual Administrative Review Board on 25 October 2005. The three page memo listed factor for and against his continued detention. The following primary factors favor continued detention The following primary factors favor transfer or release Second annual Administrative Review Board hearing A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for Ahmed Zeid Salem Zohair's second annual Administrative Review Board on 30 October 2006. The three page memo listed factor for and against his continued detention. The following primary factors favor continued detention The following primary factors favor transfer or release Clearance by Administrative Review Board On December 23, 2008, the Administrative Review Board cleared Zuhair for departure from Guantanamo. The Government withheld the information from Zuhair, his lawyers, and the court reviewing his case until mid-February 2009. Habeas corpus petition Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that Zuhair's June 12, 2009 repatriation came shortly before the Department of Justice would be called upon to defend his continued detention during consideration of his habeas corpus petition. Zuhair's lawyers have filed an extensive refutation of the government's allegations in court. They argue that the allegations against Zuhair are baseless: : Zuhair's lawyers point out that the type of intelligence document extensively relied upon to justify his detention almost always carry the legend "WARNING: INFORMATION REPORT, NOT FINALLY EVALUATED INTELLIGENCE" and are used to circulate possible leads, rather than verified information. Although most of the tortured-based evidence in the case remained classified, Zuhair's attorneys also produced an unclassified declaration from Sa'd Iqbal Madani, a victim of rendition and torture in Egypt and Afghanistan. In it, Madani described how, in order to avoid further mistreatment, he made false statements at Bagram that interrogators used to link Zuhair to the Cole bombing. Other detainees who were held at Bagram, including Mamdouh Habib and Moazzam Begg, also attested to the torture that Madani experienced. Zuhair's attorneys also attacked the government's allegations directly. Most importantly they demonstrate that despite investigations of the murder of William Jefferson by Bosnian police, the United Nations, and the FBI, Zuhair was never charged as a suspect. Moreover, Bosnian authorities issued an arrest warrant for another man, Fa'iz al-Shanbari, for the murder in 1998. A comprehensive 200-page investigation by the UN did not even mention Zuhair. Zuhair's attorneys conclude: Hunger strike s" for twice daily force-feedings. The immobilizations last for several hours, so captives can't vomit their nutrient.]] In May 2008 the Gulf News reported that Zuhair and Abdul Rahman Shalabi are the two remaining captives who have been on the hunger strike that started in August 2005. mirror On 25 October 2008 the Associated Press reported that new documents, documenting Guantanamo guards struggles to force-feed Zuhair had recently been filed in court. mirror According to the report: : Joint Task Force Guantanamo guard force commander Colonel Bruce Vargo offering the justification for the use of force, stated: : According to an affidavit filed by Ramzi Kassem, one of his attorneys, official records document that between August and October Zuhair lost over 16 kilograms, dropping to under 45 kilograms. mirror Kassem's affidavit stated that when he last visited Zuhair, in mid November, he kept vomiting uncontrollably, because he was allergic to the liquid food substitute used during his force-feedings. : Pauline Storum, a Joint Task Force Guantanamo spokesmen, stated that camp authorities monitored the captives' health closely. US District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered an independent medical examination for Zuhair. On March 17, 2009, Ben Fox, writing for the Associated Press quoted a court statement filed by Colonel Bruce Vargo, commander of the camp's guard force, who explained that camp authorities could not agree to move Zuhair to the Camp 4, due to his history of infractions of the camp rules. He stated it would set a bad precedent, and that other captives held in camp 6 might follow his example, so that they too could be moved ot camp 4. Vargo's statement acknowledged that the camp's riot squad was routinely called upon to extract Zuhair from his cell for his twice-daily force-feedings. His statement said Zuhair had committed 80 infractions of the camp rules in the last four months. Vargo stated that Zuhair currently weighed 114 pounds, down from 137 pounds in August 2008. After his repatriation to Saudi Arabia on June 12, 2009 Carol Rosenberg, writing in the Miami Herald, reported that Zuhair had been the longest lasting hunger striker, whose hunger strike had lasted 1450 days. Death threats Zuhair wrote a letter to his attorneys on July 18, 2008 stating that Guantanamo guards had searched his cell, confiscated some of his correspondence with his attorneys, and threatened to kill him if he did not drop his habeas petition. mirror Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered the guards involved to submit sworn declarations to the court detailing their responses to the allegations, the first time a judge had done so in a Guantanamo-related case. Repatriation Zuhair and two other Saudis, Abdelaziz Kareem Salim al-Noofayee and Khalid Saad Mohammed, were repatriated to Saudi Arabia on June 12, 2009. Fox News reported that Zuhair: "had been implicated in the murder of an American." Saudi security officials have stated that the three men were allowed to meet with their families, shortly after their repatriation. Security officials said the three men were then taken to an undisclosed location for interrogation. The three men would go through the same Saudi jihadist rehabilitation program as other repatriated captives, even though some former captives have back-slid to supporting jihadism following their release. Admission of Insufficient Evidence During a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 17, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder publicly admitted that Zuhair had been cleared for transfer from Guantanamo by both administrations because "there was no sufficient proof to bring a case" against him. See also * Hunger strike References Category:Living people Category:Guantanamo detainees known to have been released Category:People from Jeddah Category:1965 births Category:Saudi Arabian people